[VESSEL OF HATRED] Quill Volley - Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

This endgame build for the Spiritborn focuses on Quill Volley as your primary source of damage. Thanks to the double Jaguar Spirit Guardian, this build is a good option to fight bosses and bigger groups of enemies. You benefit from the Gorilla’s Armored Hide skill, giving you the survivability to withstand hits while also maintaining good mobilty with Soar. This combination allows you to tackle tough challenges with speed.

This endgame guide assumes your Spiritborn is Level 60 and meets all the build requirements. If you are just starting out with a new Spiritborn character, we recommend heading over to the Quill Volley Leveling Build and then switching to this endgame build when ready.

For information on Season 6, you can check out our Season Hub.
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Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Great Mobility
Good AoE and Single Target Damage
Powerful and Fast

Weaknesses

Gear Reliant
Resource Management

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

This build will also require the Mythic Unique Ring of Starless Skies.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the completed build. If you are missing skill points, complete Renown Tier 1-4 in every zone to get the missing additional points.

Spirit Hall Choice

The Spirit Hall allows you to combine two different Spirit Guardians or stick with just one.

Primary Spirit Guardian: Jaguar
- Every 15th time you deal direct damage to an enemy with a Jaguar Skill, unleash an additional strike dealing 15% of the damage you have dealt to them in the last 0.5 seconds. All skills are now also Jaguar skills.
Secondary Spirit Guardian: Jaguar
- Maximum Ferocity is increased by 1. Gain 1 stack of Ferocity whenever you kill an enemy or damage a Boss

For this endgame build, we pick the Jaguar as the primary and secondary Spirit Guardian. With the Jaguar as primary spirit guardian, we gain additional direct damage. Furthermore, since every skill will now also be identified as a Jaguar skill, passive notes such as Potent or Furnace will also apply to Eagle skills. The secondary spirit will be the Jaguar as well, in order to increase Ferocity. It synergizes greatly with the rest of the build by raising maximum Ferocity stacks by 1, resulting in even more attack speed.

Paragon Board

Paragon unlocks after reaching Level 60, and is considered an endgame progression system. Leveling up your paragon greatly increases your character’s power! We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to improve the build even further as you grind through the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 46 version.

Keep in mind that the Paragon Boards were selected during theorycrafting, and everything is still subject to change until after the release of the Vessel of Hatred expansion.

Gear, Stats, Gems, Runes, and Elixirs

The following sections cover all systems that are important if you want to improve the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.

Legendary Aspects

Each Aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each Aspect in the assigned slot. Remember to salvage Legendary Items with higher Aspect values to unlock them in the Codex of Power, and then imprint them onto gear pieces with the preferred affixes.

Additionally, if you are trying to farm a specific item, we recommend using your Obols to target farm them!

Gear Slot	Gems/Runes	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Poc Que	Harmony of Ebewaka	According to your secondary Spirit Hall choice, your Skills are all additionally Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede Skills. Your skills deal x{x}% increased damage per Spirit type they have.
Chest	Tam Ohm	Aspect of Endurance	Your Resolve has a {x}% chance to not be lost when you are hit for each stack of ferocity you have
Gloves		Rebounding Aspect	Quill Volley’s feathers explode at their apex and return to where they were cast, dealing {x}% of their normal damage both times.
Pants	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Forest Power	Lucky Hit: Up to a {x}% chance to create a Mystic Circle for 10 seconds. Casting a Goirilla skill in Mystic Circles empowers them to periodically grant you a Barrier for {x}% of your Maximum Life which increases your Armor and Maximum Resistances by {x}% while active.
Boots		Duelist’s Aspect	Maximum Ferocity increased by 1-5.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Grand Skull	Aspect of Unyielding Hits	Casting a Gorilla skill adds {x}% of your Armor to all attacks for 3 seconds
Ring	Grand Skull	Ring of Starless Skies	Spending your primary resource reduces the resource cost of your skills and increases your damage by x{x}% for 3 seconds, up to x{x}%
Ring	Grand Skull	Ring of the Midnight Sun	When you critically strike, you regain {x}% of the vigor you’ve spent in the last 2 seconds. Gain Counterattack’s passive effect.
Weapon (200% bonus)	Grand Emerald	Aspect of Redirected Force	Gain increased critical strike damage equal {x}% of your block chance. Blocking doubles this bonus for 10 seconds.

The Mythic Unique Ring of Starless Skies will help you with Vigor management. If you do not have this ring, you should use the Aspect of Accursed Touch on that slot, wear Tyrael’s Might, and use the Vital Strikes key passive.

Additionally, if you happen to get the Rod of Kepeleke unique weapon, take advantage of this and replace the Ring of Starless Skies with Aspect of the Moonrise.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important. Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from Nightmare Dungeons. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides, for more details about these topics.

Slot	Targeted Gear Affix	Tempering Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Dexterity 3. Armor	Worldly Endurance (Defensive): Total Armor Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation
Chest	1. Ranks to Defensive skills 2. Resistances 3. Dexterity	Worldly Endurance (Defensive) – Total Armor Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation
Gloves	1. Ranks to Quill Volley 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Attack Speed	Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation Eagle Finesse (Offensive) – Eagle Damage
Pants	1. Dodge Chance 2. Armor 3. Resistances	Worldly Endurance (Defensive) – Total Armor Natural Schemes (Utility) – Barrier Generation
Boots	1. Dexterity 2. Movement Speed 3. Resistances	Natural Motion (Mobility) – Movement Speed Worldly Fortune (Utility) – Chance to Stun for 2 seconds
Amulet	1. Attack Speed 2. Movement Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance	Worldly Stability (Resource) – Lucky hit: up to a 15% chance to restore x% Primary resource Jaguar Finesse (Offensive) – Jaguar Damage
Rings	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Vulnerable Damage 3. Resistance Needed	Worldly Stability (Resource) – Lucky hit: up to a 15% chance to restore x% Primary resource Jaguar Finesse (Offensive) – Jaguar Damage
Weapon	1. Vulnerable Damage 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Dexterity	Eagle Finesse (Offensive) – Eagle Damage Eagle Augments (Weapon) – Chance for Quill Volley Projectiles to cast twice

The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow.

Make sure to reach the Armor Cap of 1,000. Certain builds that scale with armor, such as this one, may benefit from having more of it. For instance, any build that makes use of the Aspect of Unyielding Hits. Furthermore, in higher difficulties, there will be a penalty to armor and resistance, so you will need a higher amount to compensate for the loss.

Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the recommended Gems and Runewords to socket into your gear.

Gems

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Grand Emerald For increased Critical Strike Damage	Grand Emerald For more Dexterity	Grand Skull For more Armor

Runewords

Runewords are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and can be used to strengthen or fill a build’s weaknesses. Two Runewords have to be combined to create a new effect:

A trigger Runeword of Ritual that provides Offerings when the condition is met
An effect Runeword of Invocation that costs Offerings and triggers an action.

Once the Runeword of Ritual has generated enough Offerings, the Runeword of Invocation will trigger its effect. Some Runewords of Invocation will have overflow effects, meaning that extra Offerings that have been created will be used to empower the triggered effect. For more information on how Runewords work, take a look at our comprehensive Runeword Guide.

Runewords replace Gems in gear.
Only two Runeword pairs (4 Runes in total) can be equipped at a time.

The following are recommended Runeword combination options for the Thunderspike endgame build of the Spiritborn:

Runeword Combination	Runeword Effects
Tam Ohm	Tam – Gain: 25 Offering. Cast a non-channeled core skill. Ohm – Requires: 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown: 2 Seconds. Evoke the Barbarian’s War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt.
Poc Que	Poc – Gain: 2 Offering. Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource. Que – Requires: 300 Offering. Cooldown: 1 Seconds. Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from activities like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!

The following Elixirs are useful for most Spiritborn builds:

Elixir of Precision provides the highest damage output increase.
Elixir of Advantage increases your attack speed
Elixir of Resourcefulness helps with resource issues, if you struggle with resource management
Elixir of Fortitude for additional survivability

Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock different NPC Mercenaries who join you on your travels. In the early endgame, you can generally pick any mercenary you like, as they will not play an essential role until you optimize your build. However, if you would prefer to get a recommendation, we would advise selecting Subo as your main companion, for the added survivability he provides, and Raheir as Reinforcement.

Subo Skill Tree choices:

Core Skill: Wire Trap
Core Passive: Ready At Hand
Iconic Skill: Trip Mines
Iconic Passive: Loaded Munitions

Raheir Reinforcement choices:

Opportunity Skill: Pick “Injured” as opportunity skill (will automatically trigger when you become Injured)
Reinforcement Skill: Provoke

Rotation and Playstyle

This build is straightforward and easy to play as you heavily focus on your primary damage-dealing skill Quill Volley, which is upgraded with the Rebounding Aspect. Quill Volley allows you to do massive AoE Damage while making enemies Vulnerable. On top of that, Ravager increases your Ferocity and will passively stock up any healing you receive to deal additional damage upon activation of the skill.

Furthermore, Soar is a great skill to quickly get into the fight, while Armored Hide provides more survivability. Last but not least, The Hunter is a great ultimate skill calling the Jaguar spirit guardian to your help for additional damage.

Enter the fight with Soar.
Armored Hide for protection.
Ravager for additional damage over 6 seconds.
The Hunter for increased damage.
Spam Quill Volley!
Use Rock Splitter if you need Vigor.

Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful and recommended for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.

If a Unique or Mythic Unique is not listed here, it is NOT recommended and won’t benefit this specific build in any way.

Uniques

Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for this build.

Harmony of Ebewaka (Required): According to your secondary Spirit hall choice, your skills are all additionally Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede skills. Your skills deal x{x}% increased damage per Spirit type they have.
Ring of the Midnight Sun (Required): When you critically strike, you regain {x}% of the vigor you’ve spent in the last 2 seconds. Gain Counterattack’s passive effect.
Rod of Kepeleke (Recommended for better Vigor Management): Your core skills are now additionally basic skills, free to cast, and deal up to {x}% less damage based on their cost. At maximum vigor your core skills instead deal normal damage and consume all vigor to critically strike with {x}% increased critical strike damage for each point spent.

Mythic Uniques

Ring of Starless Skies: Spending your primary resource reduces the resource cost of your skills and increases your damage by {x}% for 3 seconds, up to x{x}%.

Advanced Information

Detailed information about this build will be updated once Vessel of Hatred is released and the class has been thoroughly play-tested.

If you want to have a look at builds that focus on other spirit guardians, you can find all our Spiritborn builds listed on this page.

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, you can use Obol vendors in town to try and get any specific item that you are missing. When a Level 60 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 750 item power, the highest non-Ancestral item power in the game, allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need. There is also a small chance to receive an Ancestral piece with item power 800.

You can check out our Obol Gambling Tool here!

Changelog

October 5th, 2024: Guide theorycrafted and created for Vessel of Hatred, Season 6.

Quill Volley – Spiritborn Build for Diablo 4